Freedom for Birth

Freedom For Birth is a 60 minute campaigning documentaryfeaturing a Who's Who of leading birth experts and international Human Rightslawyers all calling for radical change to the world's maternity systems.  

Made by Britishfilmmakers Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford, Freedom For Birth filmtells the story of an Hungarian midwife Agnes Gereb who has been jailed forsupporting women giving birth at home. One of the home birth mothers  supported by Ms Gereb decided to take astand.

Hermine Hayes-Klein, US lawyer and organiser ofthe recent Human Rights in Childbirth Conference at the Hague, the Netherlandssays, “the way that childbirth is being managed in many countries around theworld is deeply problematic. Millions of pregnant women are pushed intohospitals, pushed onto their back and cut open. They are subject to unnecessarypharmaceutical and surgical interventions that their care providers openlyadmit to imposing on them for reasons of finance and convenience. Women aroundthe world are waking up to the fact that childbirth doesn't have to be likethis and it shouldn't. Disrespect and abuse are not the necessary price ofsafety”.

When pregnant with hersecond child, Anna Ternovsky took her country to the European Court of HumanRights and won a landmark case that has major implications for childbirtharound the world.

There will be over 1000 screenings of this landmark film on Thursday September 20th 2012.  Log on to www.freedomforbirth.com to find out if there is a screening near you.

I will be screening this film on Thursday October 4th at my home in South West France. 

Inspiring Story

The other night I had the priviledge and the honour to meet Olympic Gold Medallist, Kristin Armstrong.  On the night that she successfully defended her Beijing Time Trial Title, she paid tribute to her coach and family for supporting her and believing in her.
Kristin shared that with only 22 months before the Olmpics, her coach convinced her to return to training only months after the birth of her first child.  It was a struggle to get her recently pregnant body to respond to the rigours of training, however both her and her coach persevered and were richly rewarded with an amazing success.

To win one Gold Medal is an awesome achievement in itself, however to defend your title to win Gold again only two years after having a baby is truly inspiring.

Kristin shared with me that actually the birth of her child was a wonderful experience and extremely easy with only one hour of full labour.  She consciously chose not to attend birth preparation classes as she felt they engendered too much anxiety in first time mothers.  The belief Kristin had in herself surely contributed to her easy and joyful birth.

WHAT AN INSPIRATION!